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Facebook reported earnings of $2 billion or 1.5 billion pounds in the second quarter of the year, up from $719 million in the same period last year.

Analysts had expected revenue of $5.8 billion, but the social media giant has surpassed even those high forecasts, posting $6.4 billion in revenue. Revenue has surged in all geographic zones, rising in Asia and Europe at 19% and 21% respectively.

Mobile advertising, which has been highly advocated by Facebook to businesses, composed 84% of Facebook's advertising revenue in the second quarter rising from 76% last year. The firm profited from an inflow of advertising money being redirected from television towards digital platforms. Facebook's number of monthly-active-users, an important gauge for advertisers, jumped by 15% to 1.71 billion as of the end of June 2016.

Industrial production in Japan was up 1.9 percent on month in June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Friday.
That beat forecasts for a gain of 0.5 percent following the 2.6 percent decline in May.
On a yearly basis, output slipped 1.9 percent - also exceeding forecasts for -2.9 percent after easing 0.4 percent in the previous month.
Upon the release of the data, the METI upgraded its assessment of industrial production, saying that it continues to fluctuate indecisively but shows signs of increasing in parts.

Microsoft plans to cut 2, 850 more jobs, adding to the formerly disclosed job cuts as it restructures its sales operation and shuts down its mobile phone hardware business division.

The software company announced the latest lay-off in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

A spokesperson said that nine hundred of the job cuts in the global sales division have already been done. Microsoft is projecting the remaining 1, 950 cuts to be completed by 2017. Jobs in the sales organization and mobile phone division will be included in the cuts. The most recent cuts comes after the 1, 850 layoffs in the phone unit disclosed in May.

The job cuts are part of a reorganization that came after COO Kevin Turner's departure from Microsoft, leading to the restructuring of the sales group by Chief Executive Satya Nadella.

Sony Corp. advanced the biggest in three weeks after its invigorated games division pushed the Japanese company to beat quarterly results forecast, justifying CEO Kazuo Hirai's shifted emphasis on media and entertainment.

Sony shares gained as much as 3.5% to 3, 397 yen, the biggest recorded jump on an intraday basis since July 11, bringing its gains for the year to a total of 13%.

The company reported a net income of 21.2 billion yen or $205 million in the second quarter, against the expectations of analysts of a 39-billion yen loss. Sony retained its projection of 80 billion yen annual profit.

It was the robust growth of the company's game division that boosted the firm's net income. Its impressive performance has helped investors look beyond the effect of the Kumamoto earthquakes that has closed down the main manufacturing site for components of its digital cameras. Sony also report an unexpected profits in its phone division, reflecting the company's efforts to cut down its mid-range line-up and its withdrawal from unprofitable markets.

Sony Corp. advanced the biggest in three weeks after its invigorated games division pushed the Japanese company to beat quarterly results forecast, justifying CEO Kazuo Hirai's shifted emphasis on media and entertainment.

Sony shares gained as much as 3.5% to 3, 397 yen, the biggest recorded jump on an intraday basis since July 11, bringing its gains for the year to a total of 13%.

The company reported a net income of 21.2 billion yen or $205 million in the second quarter, against the expectations of analysts of a 39-billion yen loss. Sony retained its projection of 80 billion yen annual profit.

It was the robust growth of the company's game division that boosted the firm's net income. Its impressive performance has helped investors look beyond the effect of the Kumamoto earthquakes that has closed down the main manufacturing site for components of its digital cameras. Sony also report an unexpected profits in its phone division, reflecting the company's efforts to cut down its mid-range line-up and its withdrawal from unprofitable markets.

Williams Cos Plans on Being a Standalone Company and Invest $1.7 billion

Energy company Williams Cos Inc (WMB.N) has set plans to become a standalone company and invest $1.7 billion to its limited partnership Williams Partners (WPZ.N) following the separation of its takeover that is beyond $20 billion by Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE.N). Williams' shares have plunged to almost 60 percent for the last year as the company failed to compel Energy Transfer Equity to end its agreed-upon purchase.

On Monday, Williams had reported a second-quarter decline mainly because of a previous charge in relation to the approaching sale of its own operations in Canada. The company has stated that it expects to conclude the sale by this quarter with total proceeds worth beyond $1 billion dollars. A distribution reinvestment plan was also introduced which will allow the company along with its other investors in William Partners to refrain from payouts from the partnership in exchange for new units.

The majority shareholder of Williams Partners is Williams and with this new investment it could help reduce debt and be able to continue an investment-grade credit rating.

Bitcoin prices plunged following the breach of one of the largest exchanges that halted trading after hackers stole around $65 million worth of the digital currency.

Bitcoin sagged 5.3% versus the dollar as of 10:17 a.m. in Tokyo Trading, adding up its two-day decline to 13%, with the currency almost down 20% this week. Prices were also down 6.2% on Monday, but it was not sure if the decline was linked to the breach.

Hong-Kong based Bitfinex stopped trading, deposits and withdrawals on Tuesday after recognizing the security breach. It stated that it was probing details and working with authorities, but also admitted that it was a large breach that some bitcoin were stolen from its users. Bitfinex stopped all trading activities in all digital currencies, including the ethereum, but assured participants that losses were restricted only to bitcoin.